Butterfly
by sapphireswimming
Summary: Co-written with Danny Phantom SG-1. After watching a butterfly in the park one afternoon, Danny understands a little more about his powers. Happy Danniversary 2012!


**A/N: Hello. You probably weren't expecting to see me here. Not that you know who I am yet. This is DannyPhantomSG1, the amazing and all-powerful friend of sapphireswimming. *waves* **

**As some of you may have (hopefully) noticed, today is Dannyversary. And we are bound and determined to bring some CELEBRATION back into this PHANDOM, darnit. So, since we are dormmates and live right across the hall from each other, sapphireswimming and I decided to write you guys a little fanfiction. Together. It's an every-other-line type of collab, with the prompt given to us by DPSG1's friend (who is also, by extension, sapphireswimming's friend…we're a complicated bunch). **

**Turned out a little dark, but hey. What did you expect?**

* * *

><p><strong>Butterfly<strong>

Danny reclined against the rough bark of his favorite tree in the park. One leg dangled lazily as he looked out from between the leaves. His ruffled white hair blew swiftly in the breeze as he took in a huge gulp of air. The air was sweet with the scent of new leaves and earth—Sam would love it—he decided. Softly, he let the air sift out of his lungs and expel through his nose, creating a chilled breeze which resulted in crystalline formations hanging on the leaf in front of him. He watched silently until they melted and then shifted his eyes upward to a break in the foliage where the sun's glint hurt his eyes.

_Powerful stuff_, he thought, blinking at the intensity. _You never realize just how powerful until you look directly at it or feel its direct heat on a sweltering summer's day._

Closing his eyes and letting out another chilling sigh, he relaxed his neck until he was once again facing the leaf he had frozen. It was so delicate, with the ice crystallizing the veins running across its surface, but bold too, in its own small way. Allowing a small smile to grace his face, he leaned his head to rest against the tree and closed his eyes once again, slowly drowsing off.

He stayed there with his eyes closed, drifting further and further away until he jerked up with a start. The resounding cacophony of schoolchildren running along the pathway adjacent to his tree brought him from his reverie. They must have just gotten out of their classes for the day and were eager to celebrate this fact by leaving the gravel to run in circles and figure eights around his tree and the one next to it. Rolling his eyes, yet with a sad smile of envy, he effortlessly made himself invisible, not at all desirous of attention—good or bad—at the current juncture. Just to make especially sure, he climbed up further into the tree, stopping only when the branches above him would no longer bear his human weight.

_Heh_, he mused as he paused on a branch. _Human weight. Why should I worry about that?_

And so, with a grin, he touched his intangibility and clambered still higher. Once he'd reached the nigh top of the tree, poising himself effortlessly on a branch, he looked down and observed that he was quite high and quite alone.

Well, not quite alone.

On the selfsame branch he had just precariously perched himself sat a striking, shivering butterfly. Danny's breath caught as he looked at it. Its wings blew delicately with the wind, and the intricate patterns adorning its wings glistened in the light of the setting sun. For a moment, they caught full on orange and blazed fiery as the sun, but then Danny blinked again and it returned to a pale yellow-green. Fascinated, he held his breath as he stared at it, not daring to alert the tiny creature of his presence.

He watched it walk along the branch ever so slowly and found himself drawn to observe it more closely. Leisurely, thoughtlessly, he let out the breath he had been so carefully holding. And the butterfly, which he'd been so surprised hadn't left as he leaned closer, froze into a perfect statue of itself. Blinking and flinching backward in shock, Danny immediately halted his outward breath; but it was too late. The ice he had used to so decoratively cover the leaf had turned deadly when it met with the tiny living creature. In both horror and wonder, he felt his eyes subconsciously well with unexpected tears as he reached forward to gingerly touch the result of his carelessness.

Before his hand came into contact, the butterfly wavered and toppled from its precarious perch on the branch, catching the sunlight as it spiraled downward. He watched it flutter unceremoniously to the ground, one of his tears falling soundlessly beside it, as it landed a few inches from the feet of one of the children ignorantly playing beneath his tree.

The girl knelt down to see what had fallen, and her friends stopped their game to watch what she was doing. With tender care, she quietly lifted the fallen creature, a frown settling over her features as she felt a wing break under her tiny hand's grasp. She let out a gasp and began to cry. Danny winced at the sound of the little voice breaking, and he watched as one of her concerned companions walked over to console her.

The girl looked up into sky, to where the butterfly had come from, the tears still freely streaming down her face. Her friend did likewise, and Danny, though still intangible and invisible, naturally blushed in shame as their stares gazed straight through him.

They continued to focus on the top of the tree, as if they were looking at him, or could somehow sense him. The sobbing girl's companion, in a voice eerily unfit to come from such a young child, whispered ominously, directing the comment at some unseen entity: "We should go. I don't-" he stopped "I feel like there's something up there… something… powerful."

Watching them slowly amble away, the boy's arm protective around the girl, Danny drew back in the tree and stared soundlessly at his hands.


End file.
